The agricultural activities in the regions of Budai, Saida, Hermel, Baalbek, Deir al-Ahmar and al-Sahel issued the following statement:
At the invitation of agricultural activities in the Bouday and Saida regions, a large-scale meeting was held that included farmers from Hermel, Baalbek, Deir al-Ahmar and the Sahel, with the aim of studying and discussing the issue of hemp cultivation for the 2026 season. Given the information available about the reasons for the delay in approving the implementing decrees of Law 178/2020, attendees praised the strenuous efforts made by the regulatory body in drafting and preparing integrated and comprehensive texts exceeding 300 pages, covering all standards. International and regulatory. In this regard, the attendees expressed their astonishment and extreme dissatisfaction at the failure of the Presidency of the Council of Ministers, in its capacity as the guardianship authority, to refer these texts and decrees to other concerned official authorities to express their opinion and approve them, which led to the disruption of the start of the season without any acceptable justification.
Given that the texts included practical solutions such as adopting a transitional period to document national origin, and given that farmers had previously appealed to the government through official letters without obtaining clear responses, and given the lack of time and the approaching end of the growing season, the attendees affirmed their decision to immediately begin preparing the lands and cultivating the national hemp plant for medical use as a fait accompli, pending the legislation of industrial varieties. It was also decided to form a committee to review the regulatory body in appreciation of its efforts, and to go directly to hold the General Secretariat of the Council of Ministers and the Prime Minister personally accountable for the reasons for withholding the decrees and delaying their referral, in addition to reviewing the Minister of Agriculture and the Presidency of the Republic to put an end to this postponement that threatens the livelihoods of farmers.
